Bridging the Gap in treatment (Counselling and Medication)
“MacBerth: How does your patient doctor?
Doctor: Not so sick, my lord, as
she is troubled
with thick –coming fancies that keep her from rest.
McBerth: Cure her of that’ Canst
thou not minister to a mind diseased,
pluck the memory rotted sorrow, raze out the written troubles of the
brain,
and with some sweet oblivious antidote cleanse the stuffed bosom
of that perilous stuff which weighs upon her heart”
The prejudice in the field
of psychological counselling calls for a great work to be done with regards to
the conscientise the today African society. While a lot of respect is awarded
to physical health specialists and less reference to the mental health experts,
to the extent that people believe that if one needs help he does need t see a
doctor , while its mental health related , it has to be someone . While
recently the insurgence of the novel pandemic of Covid-19 and member states
reactionary move to combat the spread of the deadly virus set stage for the
need of mental health specialists the likes of psychologists and counselors to
assist the community cope with a number of psychological related issues yet
only a few regardless of the presence of professionals qualified to render help,
seek help . Demystifying counselling can be the greatest step towards ping the
community gaining enlightenment which will ensure that people would seek help.
Another picture that has painted
counselling is how it is misrepresented
one way or the other some of us , maybe
almost all have come across how social media ideology on counselling which
might have raised anxiety. Admitting as a teenager watching television show
Frazer which focused on a
therapist with a call-in radio who takes each call by stating – I’m listening
,or a number of cartoons , eg Rick and
Mote or movies where a therapist is portrayed as a stereotypical analyst ,
image an middle aged male or female
wearing a vest and fancy glasses sitting in a chair with his or her legs
crossed asking the patient who is laying on a couch to recall a traumatic
experience from their childhood , makes many people believe that being a
therapist is easy ,because one just mostly listen , while in reality therapists do spend a significant amount of time
listening while in a sessions with clients, they do not negatively judge or
‘analyse. With is definitely opposite to what many people might have thought
based on what they may have seen on social media .
It is
this advocacy towards the embracing of counselling that helps clients quickly
recover, the trust that people may not want to admit is that the intake of
medicines have an implication on their health, hence embracing non-medical treatment
options such a counselling tend to address the gap in the field of health. While
United Nations (2020) indicated that there is no health without mental health
as incorporated in their definition of health as a state of both physical and
mental wellbeing and merely without the absence of disease. It may be imperative
to highlight the link between a number of physical and chronic health problems that
have their grounding in mental
health. Which may be worsened if gone unchecked leading to people drawn to
medication. Note some
mental health conditions don’t respond well, if at all, to medications. For
example, while medications can sometimes help you manage specific symptoms of
personality disorders, counselling is
best, as it is the only treatment that addresses
the core traits of these
conditions. Similarly, while some medications, particularly SSRIs, can treat
mood or cognitive symptoms in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), counselling
is recommended as the first-line treatment
for PTSD. Advances in research on PTSD and other trauma-related conditions have
led to the development of effective
trauma-oriented therapies including
cognitive processing counselling (CPT) and eye movement desensitization and
reprocessing (EMDR).
One factor that is important to consider when one is comparing counselling and medication is timing. In general, medications take effect faster and have stronger effects in the early stages of treatment, while counselling takes longer to have an effect but yields lasting effects that grow stronger over time. This may be the reason that many people choose to combine both forms of treatment, especially when their symptoms are severe. Medications can help you stabilize more quickly after a mental health crisis, while engaging in counselling can improve your chances of long-term recovery and reduce the risk of relapse when or if you stop taking psychiatric medication. Be that as it may , as indicated, in MacBerth, “Cure her of that’ Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, pluck the memory rotted sorrow, raze out the written troubles of the brain, and with some sweet oblivious antidote cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff which weighs upon her heart”, counselling is effective when the individual has voluntarily taken the step towards change , healing and recovery. Apart from taking medications it more of a journey towards sell awareness and manage to deal with the self-incapacitating issues affecting ones functioning.
Worth noting however for counselling is that personal
factors determine whether medication or counselling is effective for any given individual. Some of
these factors have been identified specifically in the research. People with a
significant history of childhood trauma seem to respond better
to counselling than to
medication, for example. People need a
treatment “tune-up” after a successful first round of treatment with counselling,
medication, or both. Which route you go will depend on what worked for you last
time. For example, it might not make as much sense to go back to counselling if
you’re most recent experience wasn’t helpful or if you already know from past
experience that a medication tune-up should address your current symptoms. Conversely,
if one had a negative experience with a medication that didn’t work well, that
took a long time to work, or that caused severe side effects, definitely one
might want to opt for trying a round of counselling instead of trying
medication again. Reading research and knowing what’s generally effective is
important, but nothing is as important as trusting oneself and own lived
experience.
Therefore if
one is to take psychiatric medication, he or she may continue to struggle with
residual symptoms or other issues medication can’t address—but that the
medication makes it possible for one to address. It is at this juncture that
one may have to put in a lot of work with the help of the practitioner to make the right changes or adjustments to
get the medication to work .For many people, taking medication, going to counselling,
or doing both is just the first step in a long-term personal recovery program
that also includes significant lifestyle changes. Regardless of which type of
treatment one may need to receive, the biggest changes, greatest growth, and
most significant impacts come from the choices one make in their day-to-day life.
Counselling is less effective if one don’t do his or her homework in between
sessions or don’t apply what they are learning in the counselling room to one’s life
outside of it. It’s true that simply showing up for a session takes work,
because it means facing instead of avoiding the issues one will be seeking
treatment to address. But it’s not true that if one is going for counselling,
he or she is necessarily doing more work than people who are treating their mental
health issues with medication.
In conclusion of the
whole issue, while the medical move has been at disposal for many years and many have used it have had
results to hold form it. The founding fathers of the science of behavior and
mind once said, “ A lay man will no doubt find it hard to understand how
pathological disorders of the body and mind can be eliminated by mere words, he will feel that
he is being asked to believe in magic”. It is imperative to note that counselling
aims at nipping in the bud of the symptoms of maladaptation before they become
full blown mental health disorders , which requires institutionalization and
medication which at best do not treat the sickness but help the patient manage
the severity of the symptoms. While this paper sought to unbridge the gap
between mental health and physical health, is it still up to the patient/
client to take the step and be ready to embark on the journey of recovery which
in turn affect on the effectiveness of the treatment and wellness programme. The
decision therefore depends mainly on the client.
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